Perplext | Long Shot: The Dice Game | Board Game | Ages 14+ | 1-8 Players | 25+ Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

Once all the relevant horses have moved everyone gets to take one action using the number rolled on the D8 – the same number of the horse that moved. You can opt to use any number by crossing off a wild die box, but once you have done this three times you must use an entire action to wipe the boxes clean for future use. Your player board has a big grid on it that has a row for each horse with their multiplier for placing 1st, 2nd, 3rd or beyond the ‘no bet’ line, a helmet and a jersey for each horse and a space to record your winnings.

The super-clever, super-interesting twist comes in the form of horse cards. Each horse in the race has its own card, and each card serves two purposes. Firstly, they’re up for sale. That’s right, you too can become the proud owner of a race horse! Owning a horse is a good thing, as they have abilities which are activated whenever that horse is chosen by the dice of destiny. The other upside to horse ownership is a payday if your nag is in the top three places at the end of the race. After this, horses 2, 4, and 6 will all move when 8 does It does what all good something-and-write games do, which is to make it really satisfying to fill in space on your board. Those mini dopamine hits from comboing things together isn’t as prevalent as in something like Hadrian’s Wall, but it’s still very satisfying. The game feels pretty chaotic most of the time, and for some people that’s a deal breaker. This isn’t a game of deep strategy. It’s a game of laughs among a group of friends. Long Shot The Dice Game has been a fairly easy teach every time there has been new players present. Some things have been harder to grasp but they are shaken out within two rounds. In essence, it is a roll and write game, but it doesn’t feel like one. Rather it is a betting game that uses writing for convenience and ease of play, rather than a pure design choice. And it works better for it, keeping the physical size small and portable while the player count is high. Your player board acts as your betting slip and record of money held and spent as well as a few other useful bits. Truth be told it can be a little bit of a hindrance to learning the game as there is a lot of info on it and it’s presented in a funny grid format that looks a bit mathematical. It’s this grid that you will be using to manage your bets, adapt horse movements and give yourself the option of late betting on horses.Long Shot: The Dice Game has its foot in two camps, racing games on one hand and roll and write on the other. So it makes sense to make one suggestion from each. Once all the relevant horses have moved everyone gets to take one action using the number rolled on the D8 - the same number of the horse that moved. You can opt to use any number by crossing off a wild die box, but once you have done this three times you must use an entire action to wipe the boxes clean for future use. Your player board has a big grid on it that has a row for each horse with their multiplier for placing 1st, 2nd, 3rd or beyond the ‘no bet’ line, a helmet and a jersey for each horse and a space to record your winnings. As it happens there’s a lot more to this. Upping your bet is only one of a number of actions that can be taken against the horse you rolled. Most extravagant of all is buying the horse, allowing you to take the card and use its special ability, such as gaining two dollars if a two comes up on the dice. More importantly if a horse you own places in the top three it will earn you a hefty bonus to your winnings. The original Long Shot had plastic horse minis, which for some reason, I found a bit freaky. It also had cards. Lots of cards. Long Shot: The Dice Game does away with the cards and goes dry-wipe crazy, with horse ownership cards and player boards you can write on. If you’ve played Just One before, you already know just how satisfying it is to use those little eraser things on the end of the pens. Teeny tiny bouts of satisfaction, every time. And they’re off Long Shot: The Dice Game, despite having a really annoying name to type, is great. It got a load of buzz earlier in the year when Shut Up & Sit Down featured it, and with good reason. In truth, I bought into the hype too, and I’m glad I did. The wooden horse markers are really chunky and satisfying, and so much less creepy than the plastic ones from the original game. I really like the wooden horses